Diamond Information
What diamond shapes say about you......
Round: Home and family-centered, dependable, unaggressive, easy to get along with and security conscious.
Oval: Indiviualistic, creative, well-organized, dependable, willing to take chances.
Heart: Sentimental, creative, feminine, sensitive, trusting, dramatic, and a dreamer.
Radiant or Princess: Disciplined, organized, conservative, efficient, honest, and open.
Pear: Conforming, considerate, adpatable, home and community centered.
Marquise: Extroverted, aggressive, experimental, exciting, innovative, career-centered.
Understanding Diamonds
Diamond is the ultimate gemstone in several ways:
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Hardness: Diamond is a perfect "10", simply the hardest substance known by a wide margin. Nothing can scratch a diamond other than another diamond. And a diamond can scratch anything, even a sapphire.
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Clarity: Pure diamond is completely colorless and transparent over a larger range of wavelengths (from the ultraviolet into the far infrared) than is any other solid or liquid substance - nothing else even comes close.
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Thermal Conductivity: Diamond conducts heat better than anything - five times better than the second best element, Silver! This characteristic is the basis for "diamond tests", as it is simple and cannot be faked.
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Refraction: Diamond has a relatively high index of refraction (ability to bend light), which gives it the high luster called adamantine.
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Dispersion: Diamond has a relatively high optical dispersion which gives diamond the "fire" that makes it so desirable.
It is well known that a diamond is the hardest substance found in nature, but few people realize that a diamond is four times harder than the next hardest natural mineral, corundum (sapphire and ruby). But even as hard as it is, it is not impervious. Diamond has four directions of cleavage, meaning that if it receives a sharp blow in one of these directions it will cleave, or split. A skilled diamond setter and/or jeweler will prevent any of these directions from being in a position to be struck while mounted in a jewelry piece.
As a gemstone, a diamond's single flaw (perfect cleavage) is far outdistanced by the sum of its positive qualities. It has a broad color range, high refraction, high dispersion/fire, very low reactivity to chemicals, rarity, and of course, extreme hardness and durability.
Diamond is April's Birthstone, and an alternate Zodiac stone for the Constellation of Aries.
Diamonds may be nearly any color in the rainbow plus browns, grays, and white. Shades of yellow are most common, followed by colorless. Blue, black, reddish, and greenish are more valuable (some extremely so).
Diamonds are found in a type of rock called "Kimberlite", which comprises the core of certain volcanoes over especially thick portions of the earth's crust. This hard stone is mined and then crushed between giant steel rollers. The kimberlite is reduced to fine gravel, yet the extremely hard diamonds come out unharmed! Water is added and a grease covered roller sorts the diamonds from the gravel, as the diamonds stick to the grease. Typically, a single carat of diamond is recovered from a ton of rich ore.
Diamonds are found in many areas including South Africa, Russia, and even in Arkansas in the USA. In all cases, the diamonds formed deep within the earth's mantle, and were brought to the surface in volcanic eruptions. In many cases, the diamonds weathered out of the kimberlite by natural processes, and were transported downstream by water. Many diamonds are mined in the resulting alluvial deposits in areas such as along the coast of South Africa.
The 4 C's
Diamonds have been prized through the ages for their beauty and rarity. How beautiful, and how rare, they are is determined by the Four C's. Therefore, the price of a diamond will vary on the Four C's. This involves narrowing down your shape and selecting high-quality options that provide the most brilliance and fire — without overpaying. Please review the charts above for a visual.
Clarity: Clarity is a term used to describe the absence or presence of flaws inside or on the surface of a diamond. In other words, the clarity of a diamond refers to a diamonds clearness or purity. When these flaws / marks occur internally, they are called inclusions and when these flaws / marks occur on the surface, they are known as blemishes. These slight flaws make every diamond quite unique but they also do affect the beauty and value of the diamond. Diamond Clarity Grading Scale grades a Diamond with any of the following grades: F (Flawless), IF (Internally Flawless), VVS1 - VVS2 (Very, Very Slightly Included - 1 & 2), VS1 - VS2 (Very Slightly Included - 1 & 2), SI1 - SI2 (Slightly Included - 1 & 2), I1 - I2 - I3 (Included - 1, 2 & 3).
Color: Diamonds are found in all colors of the rainbow, from colorless and transparent stones to ink black ones. Varying degrees of yellow or brown color is common in most of the diamonds and slight difference in color can make a substantial difference in value. A truly colorless diamond is extremely rare and considered the most valuable. It allows most light to pass through the stone and create the most brilliance. The color scale goes from D to Z, with D being the most white and Z being the most yellow.
Cut: Diamond Cut is the most important property to increase its beauty because a well-cut diamond reflects light to maximize the stones brilliance. A diamond with perfect color and clarity could nevertheless have poor brilliance if it is not well cut. A Diamond Cut by Shape describes the outline of the stone and pattern of the facet arrangement. A stone can be cut in various Shapes like Round, Princess, Heart, Oval, Pear etc. On the other side, a Diamond Cut by Depth is the ultimate feature for its brilliance and fire. A stone's cut by depth can be described with Shallow Cut, Deep Cut or Ideal Cut.
Carat Size: The term "Carat" refers to the weight of a diamond. Each carat is divided into 100 points. Therefore, 1/4 carat diamond is considered as 25 points and 1/2 carat diamond is considered as 50 points and so on. When diamonds are mined, large diamonds are discovered rarely in comparison of small ones, which make large diamonds much more valuable.
I love this logic for engagement ring budget
Budget: Figure out what you have to spend and stick to it.
Expectations: Listen to her. Try to understand her expectations (her needs and wants) so you will have a feel for what to pick out. Ask her friends that can keep your inquiries a secret or pay attention to what her friends are wearing and ask their husbands.
Savvy: Become savvy! Learn some basic diamond information/terminology and what best qualities are to wear so you understand cost. I I will educate you on this in our first meeting which usually takes an hour. The average diamond carat weight depends on demographics. Midwest is 0.35-0.50ct while New Yorks average is 1.50-2ct.The average in Hawaii is 1.00ct with an approximate cost of $5,000. The national average American spends $6, 324.00 on an engagement ring.
Timetable: Figure out when you want to give it to her and do not rush. Haste makes waste. Give yourself enough time to study up, look at the options, then plan the proposal.
In the 1930's, DeBeers campaign suggested to spend a single month's salary and as time went on, these advertising geniuses upped it to 2-3 months salary. But in today's world, this can be ridiculous! I came across an article that proposes a new rule for engagement buying that I love!
The Car Rule simply states that a man should spend up to, but no more than the initial purchase price of his car! Most guys like cars. The more obsessed he is about cars, the bigger and better your potential ring. We all realize that buying a car hurts our finances because it’s a depreciating asset. Yet, guys still overspend anyway, and in a big way. If a guy making $80,000 a year buys a $50,000 Cadillac Escalade (78% of his net after tax income) you should most definitely demand he spend $50,000 on a 2 carat E/VS1 in a show stopping ring! Blow up his finances with glee!
Conversely, if your man is fortunate enough to make $300,000 a year but drives a 10 year old Honda Civic he bought for $3,000 8 years ago, then you can hope that he buys you a nice 1.00 carat with average grading.
Finally, if the man so happens to be the biggest nature lover on earth and takes the bus and rides his bike, well, you’re out of luck! There is no way you can demand anything more than a Push-Pop ring from Topps!
- See more at: http://www.financialsamurai.com/the-new-rule-for-engagement-ring-buying/#sthash.d9aFh5k5.dpuf
Lab-Created Diamonds
Placed side by side, a lab-created and a natural diamond look nearly identical. The price and value, however, differ—sometimes dramatically. Other than sheer price, you might be interested in a lab-created diamond for other reasons. Perhaps you’re an engineer and are intrigued with the technical process of lab-created stones. Or maybe you’re looking for an ethical and environmentally-friendly choice. Lab-created diamonds are made over the course of several weeks, while natural diamonds take billions of years to form. Lab-grown diamonds are created through a high-temperature carbon growing and compression process. Real diamonds are cut from a rough stone into the shape and carat weight that’s desired. Similarly, once a synthetic diamond is grown, a cutter forms the shape.
Lab-created diamonds are man-made diamonds that mirror the qualities and appearance of natural diamonds. These synthetic stones consist of carbon atom structures with the same chemical and visual characteristics of natural diamond crystal. You may wonder what makes the price point what it is. The process for creating man-made diamonds isn’t cheap. It requires specialized machinery, diamond-growing experts, diamond cutters, and more. Unlike cubic zirconia or moissanite, lab-created diamonds involve either High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) or Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes. In order to multiply the carbon atoms and compress them into a diamond, they need time, innovative technology, and expertise. That’s why the prices for lab-created diamonds are still on the higher side.
Lab-created diamonds are beautiful stones that have very little to no resale value, these do not retain any value. It can’t be resold to a jeweler and it won’t garner more than a few dollars on a site like eBay. You shouldn’t view your diamond as an investment, but you shouldn’t ignore its value entirely. On the other hand, the natural diamond can be resold for at least 50% of the original price or potentially much more. Lab-created diamonds are cheaper than natural diamonds but they’re a worse bang for your buck since there’s no resale value.